


a fated occurence

by luciferTM



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (in case you're wondering about quidditch teams), Hogwarts AU, M/M, a brief kyoutani mention if you squint, about the sorting -- please just remember that is subjective, but this is my take on it, the third years have graduated already in this fic, this is just silliness and cheese
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 19:04:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7450576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luciferTM/pseuds/luciferTM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A rank of flying, ominous-looking mistletoe branches suddenly appeared in front of the professors’ table. One of them declared in a high-pitched voice: “Good morning, everyone, and merry Christmas!” Before its voice could be drowned in frantic whispers, it continued: “We thought Hogwarts had been lacking some of its traditions for a while, so this year… You’re all cursed!”</p><p>The room buzzed with unease. If it could, the mistletoe would have been smirking.</p><p>“You are all to be kissed before the end of the day!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	a fated occurence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hananapeel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hananapeel/gifts).



> this goes to [hana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/hananapeel) for being the loveliest starfish in the ocean ♡  
> thank you so much [janet](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jsunny/pseuds/jsunny) and [nona](https://twitter.com/noririnas) for accepting to beta this out of the blue, you're the real mvps
> 
> ennofuta is the one ship that is always just fun and uplifting to write. i hope this conveys that feeling somehow ;w;

Without warning, the giddy, colorful and content atmosphere of a typical Christmas morning at Hogwarts was shattered.  
They were eating breakfast, unsuspecting, when the music started playing inside the Great Hall. A regular Christmas carol, except for the fact that it was obnoxiously loud, and the professors and Headmaster were as stunned by it as the students were.  
Ennoshita exchanged a puzzled glance with Kinoshita and Narita.  


A rank of flying, ominous-looking mistletoe branches suddenly appeared in front of the professors’ table. One of them declared in a high-pitched voice: “Good morning, everyone, and merry Christmas!” Before its voice could be drowned in frantic whispers, it continued: “We thought Hogwarts had been lacking some of its traditions for a while, so this year… You’re all cursed!” 

The room buzzed with unease. If it could, the mistletoe would have been smirking. “You are all to be kissed before the end of the day!” The mistletoe giggled, which was as disquieting as it sounds. “Me and my friends can appear near you anytime today, and you can turn us down, but you must have been kissed before the clock strikes midnight! Otherwise…”  


Ennoshita stared, unimpressed, as the mistletoe paused for dramatic effect. Everyone around him tensed, leaning forward slightly.  
“Well, you’ll see! Let’s just say it won’t be pleasant. So make sure you get at least one kiss today. Of course, you’re free to kiss each other every time one of us floats your way!”  


Ennoshita winced internally. _Free. Right._  
The mistletoe speaking flew higher, the ones surrounding it slowly beginning to move towards the exit -- to hide until they could fulfill their purpose by ambushing them, Ennoshita thought.  
“Happy kissing!” said the mistletoe, looking overjoyed by the prospect of harassing people into it the entire day. It hovered above them for a moment, moving up and down randomly as if drunk, causing the first-years to shriek in panic when it got a little too close to them. Eventually, it must have decided that it was too soon, too predictable to pick a victim right here, because it left, mischievously humming a carol. Ennoshita sighed in relief along with the others.  


“This is going to be a pain”, he muttered.  


Narita shrugged. “Not necessarily. If we stick together, we could just end it with one quick peck on the lips, right?”  


Kinoshita raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you wouldn’t mind kissing _us_ , huh?”  


Narita elbowed him. “Use your head. That’s always better than being stuck kissing a stranger, or someone you don’t like… or worse, someone you do like. I mean, it’s going to be awkward either way, but… that way at least it stays between us.”  


Ennoshita stopped chewing.  
_Worse, someone you do like._  
He instantly pushed the thought away, gulping. _No way._ He’d have to be incredibly unlucky, and he did not even want to consider that possibility. There was one person he wanted to kiss, and that was the one he could not.  
He crushed his potato under his fork, and absentmindedly started stirring it.  


“Don’t you know you shouldn’t play with your food, Chikara? That’s impolite”, said a voice behind him.  
Ennoshita stood up abruptly. Narita and Kinoshita startled.  
“I’ve lost my appetite.”  


Futakuchi hummed in response. He was holding his books to his chest, staring at him with a cheeky smile, Aone towering behind him like a giant shadow. Ennoshita mentally shook himself and erased the nervousness from his face. Futakuchi’s smile widened.  
All Futakuchi had gotten out of him so far were sighs and blank stares, which only seemed to motivate him into irritating Ennoshita further. Unfortunately for him, Ennoshita had been almost single-handedly keeping rowdy quidditch players in check for a little over two years. Now that he was captain, as a sixth-year, it was a full-time job.  
No matter how persistent, pesky, blunt, or bratty, Futakuchi Kenji would have to do way better if he hoped to have him lose his composure.  
Especially since along the way, he had found another reason than pride to keep a straight face.  


Futakuchi would be way too happy to get an actual rise of out him. So happy, no doubt, that he would stop trying to annoy Ennoshita at every opportunity that he got.  
“We should get going”, Ennoshita suggested to his friends, blatantly avoiding Futakuchi’s gaze.

In facing the determined, reliable, snarky (but always polite in an official setting) captain of the Hufflepuff team, Ennoshita had learned a lot during those past few months about the person who now felt the need to send him notes at any time of day (or night) about the most insignificant details or his daily life, criticize his eating habits (as if someone who practically emptied Zonko’s joke shop every month could talk), or made gratuitous comments about, well, everything, from the way one student played quidditch to unflattering selfies.  
Futakuchi displayed unwavering determination and leadership qualities that could only arouse admiration, and made for a stark contrast with his tendency to get under other people’s skin. His teammates respected him, although they complained about him the most. To the rest of Hogwarts, Futakuchi Kenji was simply a jerk. A talented jerk, but still.

To Ennoshita, he was crooked grins, mud-stained cheeks, silent steely pride, flickers of doubt that he only caught because he experienced them all the same, cheeky laughter and a relentless, prying eye. To Ennoshita, he was someone worth knowing. Someone he wanted to learn so much more about.  
Who knew, in case he ever let it show, if he would receive a serious answer, or if Futakuchi would just brush him off with a playful retort and leave it at that, now that it was clear he had had as much fun as he could without it becoming cruel?  
Especially in this context. The mere thought of having to kiss Futakuchi on that day, when it would mean so much more to him than Futakuchi would know or that it probably did to him, made Ennoshita’s stomach churn.

  
***

The teachers, deeming the prank harmless, decided not to intervene. In fact, it seemed to amuse them.  
Ennoshita was right in assuming it would be bothersome. What he could not wrap his head around, however, was why it did not seem to be a bother to almost everybody else but him.  
Narita and Kinoshita were chosen by the mistletoe while they were at the bottom of the stairs, Ennoshita a few feet away from them, and decided to get it over with. Ennoshita fought a sense of betrayal as they patted his back, apologizing for not being able to help and teasing him affectionately, trying to guess whom he would get matched with.  
Ennoshita thought about hiding in the dormitory, but several other people had had the same idea. Trying to hide from the curse was pointless. Another Ravenclaw student had locked himself in the bathroom, hoping to avoid it, but had quickly been paired up with the person in the next stall.

Hogwarts began to treat the whole thing as a game alarmingly fast.  
Some people were lucky enough to be picked out along with their significant other. Some went around generously smooching anyone that the mistletoe decided on, which seemed to thrill the enchanted boughs. Some cried in indignation as they faced someone they disliked under the gleeful shrill of the mistletoe, to the delight of the surrounding crowd.  
People were having _fun_. ( _Well_ , Ennoshita thought, glancing at a seven-year Gryffindor with an odd haircut and crazed eyes that held a lighter tight in his palm, practically daring the mistletoe to float his way, _most of them_.)  
A swarm of students from all four houses followed around those who were popular. Ennoshita saw a blond, glasses-wearing Gryffindor’s entourage rustle with disappointment as he leaned forward for a light kiss with a stunned, stammering Hufflepuff, that Ennoshita identified later as prodigy quidditch player Kageyama Tobio.  
Unfortunately (and also, he thought, unsurprisingly), Ennoshita was far from having people line up for a chance to kiss him.  
After lunch, he finally faced his first choice as he walked to the library. A seven-year Ravenclaw head-girl, who looked at him with disdain and did not even bother slowing down.  
Then, a blushing, tiny Gryffindor, who said that it was alright with her, but whose boyfriend narrowed his eyes at Ennoshita menacingly. Since he valued his life over whatever punishment the mistletoe had in store for those who did not respect its wishes, Ennoshita chose to walk away.  
In the middle of the afternoon, while washing his hands in the bathroom, he was paired up with a jittery Slytherin second-year. She said she had already been kissed, and apologized profusely before running out.  
All of those choices were unfortunate, but Ennoshita remained calm thinking about the dreadful alternative. The much worse choice he could have to face.  
He had not crossed Futakuchi’s path since breakfast and intended to keep as far from him as humanly possible.

  
***

He would deny if asked about that night later, but yes, Ennoshita had been running.  
He had been brutally woken up by the mistletoe piping through the common room -- and all the way to their dormitory -- that they only had one hour left, in case they were still unlucky enough not to have found a partner and in imminent danger of being cursed, to find someone. The mistletoe had assured that itself and its friends would swoop around, for one last round. One last chance, during that last hour.  
Ennoshita had been trying not to get noticed as “one of those unlucky (translate: unwanted) people. That declaration was the last stroke. It made it impossible for anyone not having been kissed to been seen in any way besides socially awkward -- at best. He did not care much for social standing, but Ennoshita was still made deeply uneasy by that perspective.  
He had been walking at a rapid pace while also trying to hide from anyone he could meet at this hour (looking back on it, that was bound to be counter-productive). Before he knew it, he only had ten minutes left.  
He muttered _screw it_ under his breath and started to run through the West Wing. The closest common room was the Gryffindor’s. He had steered away from going anywhere near the Hufflepuff Basement, and even now, he would not have went that way if the all the mistletoe boughs in the world had gathered to drag him there by force.  
And yet.  


“Hey there, Chikara!”  


Ennoshita stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath, came to terms with the fact that the prankster, and possibly the universe, must really hate him. _Of course it had to be you._  


“In a hurry?” Futakuchi asked, with the tranquil innocence of someone who knew exactly what Ennoshita was doing. “Going somewhere?”  


In the corner of his vision, Ennoshita saw a mistletoe floating towards them, an evil glow to its lush leaves. _Go away_ , he prayed silently. _Please, go away. I’ll take that curse. Just go away._  


“Mmmh?” Following his gaze, Futakuchi looked behind his shoulder. “Oh, don’t tell me--”  


Ennoshita, deciding not to risk it, made an attempt at running away, but Futakuchi held him back by the hem of his uniform.  


“Let go, it’s almost here”, Ennoshita stated as calmly as he could.  


“That’s not a problem! You already got kissed once, right, Chikara?”  
Ennoshita remained silent. _5 minutes to midnight._  


“I see”, Futakuchi said. “I guess this is it then.”  


As if on cue, the mistletoe came to a halt above them. Futakuchi let go of Ennoshita’s uniform.  
It trumpeted in triumph, practically vibrating with joy, and began to sing its horrendous little song -- one that would probably still make everyone in Hogwarts shudder weeks later if they came to hear it: 

_Hello, fortunate couple, it is you I address,_  
_You that I set my eyes on, you that I chose, but I digress,_  
_Time for you to share a moment of bliss,_  
_Or you may, if you do not wish it, this proposal dismiss_  
_Either way, how about a kiss?_

Ennoshita resisted the urge to make a face. The prank had been masterfully executed and timed, but whoever was behind it could not be praised for their lyric-writing ability.  


“Sooo, here we are”, Futakuchi drawled.  
Ennoshita narrowed his eyes.  
_3 minutes._  


“I already got one kiss, so I’m good.” Futakuchi shrugged, smiled. “But I’m not opposed to helping out. In exchange--”  


“I think I’d rather be cursed.”  


“Aw, don’t be like that. You have no idea what the bottom line to that curse is. It’s probably way worse.”  


“Doesn’t matter.”  


“Come on, before you turn into a pumpkin.”  


“You’re the worst.”  


“I’m your last chance.”  


“You’re a curse in itself.”  


“Only to you, Chikara”, Futakuchi teased. There was a soft, disturbingly honest edge to his voice.  


“Pretty sure that isn’t true.”  


Futakuchi frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”  


Ennoshita crossed his arms against his chest. “I’m far from being the only one you choose to inconvenience regularly.”  


“Ah, of course, but…” 

“But?”  


Futakuchi opened his mouth to say something, then wavered. Eventually, he said, a little too airily for his lack of interest to be genuine: “Do you really hate me that much?”  


“I don’t hate you”, Ennoshita said, tone carefully neutral.  


“Do you maybe think I’m unattractive?”  


“I never said that.”  


“Well, do you?”  


“No”, Ennoshita said, hoping his embarrassment could be mistaken for irritation. Futakuchi grinned. _Why does it have to happen like this?_ “That’s not the point…”  
_2 minutes._

“What’s the point, then?” Futakuchi’s smile faded. “You do hate me a little after all this, eh.”  


Ennoshita felt indignation rise within him at the veiled hurt in Futakuchi’s voice.  
His pride be damned; Futakuchi was not allowed to think that he hated him after he made him suffer through months of pining.  
“Fine. I’ll kiss you, because I can only deal with one curse at a time.”  


“I’m the lesser of two evils, then?” As Ennoshita remained silent, he offered: “the cuter of two evils?” 

“Whatever.”  


“Okay, but… if I kiss you--”  


“Can’t we discuss that later?”  


“-- will you hear me out?”  


_20 seconds._  


“Yes. I will. Now would you please hurry and end this--”  


“So impatient. Now, you don’t have to beg”, Futakuchi whispered. He leaned forward. Ennoshita, his whole body tense, closed his eyes shut.  
“Hey”, Futakuchi said. “You can open your eyes.”  
As Ennoshita did, with a confused frown, he gently pressed a kiss to his cheek.  


Still smiling, Futakuchi murmured: “Nobody said it had to be a kiss on the lips.”  
The mistletoe hummed approvingly, shed a few leaves and berries in their hair in satisfaction, and drifted away.  


“Right”, Ennoshita managed. He was tempted to raise a hand to his cheek, touch the spot prickling with the trace of Futakuchi’s lips, but stopped himself just in time. His face was burning.  
The way Futakuchi looked at him did not help.  


“Chikara, I was wondering if you would like to--” Futakuchi started.  


“There you are!” Narita exclaimed behind him.  


“We were looking for you”, Kinoshita explained, panting. They were both out of breath. “Did you find someone you could kiss in time?”  
Futakuchi raised both eyebrows at that and smiled, waiting for Ennoshita to answer.  


“I thought you guys were leaving me to fend for myself now that you were both in the clear”, Ennoshita said wryly.  


“Yeah, but we weren’t going to let you get cursed if it came down to that”, Narita admitted.  


“It’s fine. No need. Also, you’re both late. Some help you would have been.”  


“Well, we _tried_ , at least… Oh wait, so, did _you two_ \--”  


As Futakuchi opened his mouth to answer, unable to keep quiet any longer, Ennoshita exclaimed: “Yeah, done, so no reason to linger here then. We’re going to be in trouble if we get caught outside of the dorm this late. Move, you two.”  
He firmly pushed his friends in the direction of their common room, ignoring their (now whispered) protests and questions.  


“Chikara, wait!” Ennoshita shot a glance behind him. “Um, if sometime…”  


“Yeah?” 

“Let’s… Let’s discuss that favor some other time, let me know when”, Futakuchi rattled off. 

“Oh, alright. I’ll send you a note.” 

“Goodnight”, Futakuchi blurted out as Ennoshita and his friends disappeared around the corner.  


“Goodnight”, Ennoshita murmured, mostly to himself, despite the fact that he would be lucky to get a wink of sleep after such a day.

  
***

Ennoshita did not even bother looking up when the same carol as the day before echoed through the Great Hall. He stubbornly kept buttering his toast for a moment. Didn’t the prankster know that breakfast, if nothing else, was sacred?  


The mistletoe boughs lined up once more, and their leader bellowed:  
“Congratulations, Hogwarts! Almost all of you got kissed! And as for those who didn’t…”  
Ennoshita put down his knife. A trembling first year near him grabbed the edge of the table like she expected the mistletoe to turn into a black hole and suck her in. A few curses hung in the air, a few scowls were thrown in the mistletoe’s direction.  


“You will not escape your fate”, the mistletoe announced, in a deep, theatrical voice.  
The light started to flicker, the tables shaking violently. Someone shrieked. The walls vibrated with a loud, low pitched hum. Soon they were left in complete darkness, and panic stirred through the room. The prefects shouted at the students to remain calm, someone kept asking where the teachers were, but soon no voice could be made out through the ruckus. Someone at the Hufflepuff table started jumping up and down. They knocked the table over. It crashed to the floor with a loud _bang_ , and the students screamed in unison.  
At once, the light came back. Roaring silence settled in. They exchanged bewildered gazes. 

“Just kidding”, the mistletoe screeched then. “Bye, and merry Christmas!”  
And, drawing a final gasp from the assembly, they exploded in a silver and green cloud of confetti. 

Thankfully, even though most of them had fallen to the floor, the table did not appear to have harmed anyone. Meals had flown through the room, or fallen to the ground as some of the students had, and they stood, with disheveled hair and food-stained robes, wide-eyed with shock. Some of them had hid under the tables. Ennoshita had been grasping the table so tight that his knuckles turned white. He let go, inhaling sharply.  
The students soon pulled themselves together as well. They looked daggers, as if saying of course I wasn’t scared, a few seeming ready to punch the first person who would dare laugh at them. They did their best to look as dignified as possible while removing pudding from their hair, hitting their heads on the table in their hurry to get up, letting go of whomever they had clung to.  
They had been ridiculed.  
Soon, a wave of indignation ran through the Hall.  
They had been angry at being threatened; now, they were angry at having been played. In a way, it was the perfect punishment, the appropriate conclusion to that aggravating prank.  
_Aggravating_.  
They didn’t find it funny anymore, but there was one person who would probably revel in that kind of outcome. And wouldn’t it make sense that _he_ had been one of the only people to be remarkably unlucky if said person had had a hand in it?  
Someone who, coincidentally, was also outside his dormitory that late despite not being in need of a kiss, and had offered no explanation as to why.  
A suspicion slowly formed in Ennoshita’s mind. He shot a glance towards the Hufflepuff table, expecting to find Futakuchi smirking in the face of their self-inflicted humiliation, but to his surprise, he seemed to be arguing with Aone. Arguing the way he assumed those two did, that is. Futakuchi looked both upset and sheepish, ranting at his friend vehemently, like he was trying to change his mind about something, while Aone only stared at him reproachfully.  
Could it be that Futakuchi was behind the prank, and Aone had just found out? No, Futakuchi would not hide something like that from his best friend… It had to be something else.  
Ennoshita had a gut feeling that it was linked to the prank, that Futakuchi had something to do with it, somehow.  
His mind was set on finding out in what way, which, naturally, had nothing to do with a warm cheek-kiss, tingling sweetly on his skin and kindling something expectant and eager in his chest.

  
***

Ennoshita could not -- would not -- ask Futakuchi directly. He was almost sure he could get something out of Aone, seeing as they were in disagreement, but talking to Aone alone was more difficult than he had thought.  
Eventually he approached him in a corridor, as he was speaking… well, mostly listening to… an energetic, tiny redhead. That friendship was unsettling at first glance, both due to their height difference and the opposite demeanors they exhibited. They were talking about quidditch. The redhead was Hufflepuff’s seeker, while Aone was the goalkeeper. That must have been what brought them together.  


Aone nodded at Ennoshita in acknowledgment as he saw him. Ennoshita stopped walking, asked firmly: “If it’s not too much trouble -- could I talk to you for a minute?” 

Aone only nodded again at that, as the redheaded examined Ennoshita, eyes sparkling with curiosity. “See you later!” he exclaimed, and waved goodbye to Aone before striding away.  


Aone studied him. Ennoshita gulped. He had never had an actual conversation with him. Thinking that someone who voluntarily chose to be near Futakuchi every day had to be patient as a monk, but would appreciate his time not being wasted, Ennoshita chose to be blunt:  
“Futakuchi has something to do with last week’s prank, doesn’t he?”  


Aone stared at him for a few uncomfortable seconds. Ennoshita did his best not to squirm.  
“Yes.” 

Ennoshita internally sighed in relief when Aone finally spoke, then what he had said hit him. _I knew it_. “He orchestrated it, didn’t he?”  


Aone did not bother answering this time, but he did not need to. Then, to Ennoshita’s surprise, Aone confessed: “I helped him because he said it would help, but apparently it didn’t.” 

“Help? With what?”  


Aone sighed. “He didn’t ask you, did he?” 

“Ask m--” 

_I was wondering if you would like to-- if sometime--_

Ennoshita’s eyes widened. “Do you mean to say--”  


Aone checked his watch with a concerned frown (or what would be a frown, Ennoshita guessed, if he had had eyebrows). “I have to get going. Sorry.”  
Ennoshita barely thanked him, his mind reeling. He stood still in the corridor for a moment, then burst into laughter.

  
***

Ennoshita did not have to ponder how he should confront Futakuchi for long: Futakuchi called out to him while going down moving staircases the next day.  
Ennoshita whirled around, back against the banister, as a group of second or third-year students ran past him. He lost his balance -- his back met terrifying emptiness, sucking him in -- then there was a hand with a tight grip on his collar, another grabbing his arm, pulling him up.  


“Woah there”, Futakuchi said. His voice sounded strained, strange.  


Once Ennoshita, having caught his breath, realized that he was seeing Futakuchi openly and honestly scared, for the first time, the thumping in his rib cage had not only to do with his fall.  


“Are you okay?” 

“I’m-- Yeah.” 

Futakuchi turned to the students that stood there at the bottom of the stairs, horror etched on their faces, with a scowl. “Be more _careful_.” He had his authoritarian, captain-y voice, but it had an icy edge to it that Ennoshita was not familiar with.  


“S-sorry. We’re really, really sorry.”  


“Well”, Ennoshita drawled, “the stairs would have moved in order to catch me, so I would probably only have broken a few bones--”  


Anger flared in Futakuchi’s eyes. “Chikara, you almost got really hurt. Don’t try and find them excuses.”  


Ennoshita stared at Futakuchi, still glaring at the blanching students, and smiled the way he only did when Futakuchi couldn’t see him. The smile that made his friends snicker and mutter something like _look at how smitten he is_ (before he elbowed them).  


“Don’t ever do something this reckless and inconsiderate again. Now scram before I report this to a professor”, Futakuchi said, voice cutting.  


The students did not need to be asked twice. They began to run in the opposite direction, before remembering that running is what had just caused them to almost injure someone, and slowed down, practically shrinking in place with the fear that Futakuchi had seen and would call out to them once more. Ennoshita cleared his throat to avoid chuckling.  
The fragment of stairs almost came to a halt, drifting towards its next stop ever so slowly, as if to apologize. They were the only people left on it.  
Futakuchi turned to him, his expression shifting from angry to concerned, and Ennoshita put on an innocent, disoriented face. He could not let Futakuchi see that smile -- not just yet.  


“You don’t have to be so worried, Futakuchi. I’m fine. Thank you, though.”  


“Well, I mean… It would be sad if you couldn’t play Quidditch anymore, wouldn’t it? How are we supposed to feel satisfied kicking your ass next month if the Ravenclaw team loses their precious captain? We wouldn’t feel like the victory was complete. I would be really frustrated if that were to happen. As a Quidditch player, of course.”  


“Oh, I see. I can feel free to fall to my death as long as I find a suitable replacement for Quidditch, then?”  


Futakuchi’s outraged frown made it hard for Ennoshita to keep his lips from twitching. But he would see this through. Futakuchi had had his fun, after all.  
It was his turn.  


“Anyway,” Futakuchi plastered a teasing grin on his face, “looks like you owe me once more, huh? I’m really at the right place at the right time this week. Fate is working in your favor. Isn’t it such a stroke of luck? Can you believe it?”  


_I’m afraid not._  
“Fate, you say.”  


“Right, fate”, Futakuchi continued, unaware that he had already betrayed himself in more ways than one. “You said I was a curse, but given recent events, I think you need to reconsider. Update that status to something more accurate, like, I don’t know…”  


“Let me guess. Guardian angel? Blessing? Knight in shining armor?”  


“I was going to say _handsome and helpful occurrence_ , but those are good too.”  


“Mmh. About that first… occurrence.”  


“Ah, yes?”  


“I don’t know what to say…”  


Futakuchi gave a small shrug, scratched his cheek with his finger, his gaze darting to the side. “Oh, it was no trouble. I was happy to, uh, assist. Lend a hand. Lips. You know. But, ah… There was something…”  


“Mmh?”  


“Ah, well… it can wait. I have classes to get to, so I’ll… wait for your note.”  


Ennoshita slowly raised both eyebrows. “Actually… Why wait? After you went through all that trouble.”  


“Trouble?”  


Ennoshita took a few seconds to savor the moment before speaking again. “I honestly don’t know what to say. I’ve never had anyone like me so much that they cursed the entire school just to muster the courage to ask me out… Kenji.”  


Futakuchi’s cheeks flushed. He froze. “I didn’t-- _How?!_ \--”  
Ennoshita smirked. “Aone, you traitor!” Futakuchi spluttered. “I’m going to turn him into a frog.”  


“I’m disappointed in your lack of imagination. After what you just pulled, I expected something a bit more… wait, no, that was actually just ridiculous. My bad. I guess you should stick to the classics.”  


“Shut up! I’ll have you know, that was months of preparation, I had to pay several seventh-years to help, and--” Futakuchi looked away in an attempt to hide how pink his face was. “I flirt with you constantly, and sometimes I was so sure that you flirted back, but then you always look away or avoid me and... I couldn’t figure out whether or not you were interested”, he mumbled. “It drove me crazy.”  


Ennoshita would have liked to tease him a bit more but found himself grinning helplessly. “God, you’re _ridiculous_ ”, he said, not bothering to hide the fondness in his voice. Futakuchi slowly raised his gaze again to look at him. The corners of his mouth curled.  


“That’s rich, coming from someone who spends entire nights watching movies in the room of requirement, then pretends he’s exhausted because of Quidditch practice.”  


“How did you... well, whatever.”  


“I don’t get you”, Futakuchi said. “You’re infuriating.”  


Ennoshita laughed. “Coming from you…”  


“That’s the point. I usually annoy people, not the other way around!”  


“You’re going to have to keep trying until I get sick of you, I guess.” Ennoshita shrugged; slow and deliberate, he added: “Sadly, as my boyfriend, you’ll have plenty of opportunity.”  


With a slight _thunk_ , the stairs reached their destination. Ennoshita extended his hand, as if to say _after you_.  
Futakuchi stared at him for a moment, like he was trying to make sure he had heard right. A bright smile slowly spread across his face. 

“I’ll do my best.”

**Author's Note:**

> (◡‿◡✿)  
> 


End file.
